Unsubordinated collaboration between governments and NGOs in South Asia

Richard Batley

The presentation will refer to research on collaboration betwen governments and NGOs in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan in three services: basic education, health care, and sanitation. It questions the premise that NGOs that collaborate lose their autonomy and capacity for policy influence. It finds that, even where NGOs operate in constraining institutional environments and enter agreements with government, certain conditions allow them to exercise strategic choices in response.

Richard Batley is Emeritus Professor of Development Administration at the International Development Department, School of Government and Society, University of Birmingham.